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Friday, July 04, 2014

'Fiscal impact of border security'? Spend less on roads

Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus this week appointed a committee to focus on the "fiscal impact of border security and support operations." According to a press release, "Speaker Pro Tempore Dennis Bonnen of Angleton will chair the new
committee. Its membership will also include Reps. Greg Bonnen of
Friendswood, Myra Crownover of Denton, Drew Darby of San Angelo, Donna
Howard of Austin, Oscar Longoria of Mission, Marisa Márquez of El Paso,
Sergio Muñoz, Jr. of Palmview, John Otto of Dayton, Sylvester Turner of
Houston and John Zerwas of Simonton."

Here's what's interesting to me. Before the recent episode with child migrants, Speaker Joe Straus had been maneuvering to have the House consider whether to stop diverting highway money to DPS and spend the money instead on transportation projects. Then, within a month or so of adopting that stance, the Speaker joined with the governor and lieutenant governor to approve an emergency expenditure of $1.3 million per week on expanded DPS patrols in the Valley. But a lot of the "extra" spending thrown DPS' way in recent years - $500 million, by Rick Perry's count - has gone to (IMO wasteful and pointless) border security operations. So Straus has endorsed both sides of this issue in a matter of weeks.

If Texas wants to divert money from DPS to roads - and in the big picture that's probably a wise prioritization of state expenditures - then politicians starting with Straus must find a counter to nativist scare tactics that have made "border security" such an unlikely spending imperative among the state's political class. Ironically, the mayor of McAllen doesn't believe there's a crisis or an "emergency." Perhaps Straus should look to him and other local officials in the Valley for rhetorical and policy responses to border-security hype. Otherwise, that hype will roll over him when he tries to expand transportation funding next year.

11 comments:

I'd think answering that question should be the first task of the new committee Straus appointed. Some went to DPS, some to block grants for Sheriffs along the river, including a couple of corrupt ones. Not a lot of oversight going on there, and for a number of reasons DPS gets less media/activist scrutiny than a lot of agencies.

Illegal immigration is the hottest political topic currently on the radar. Any politician can increase his popularity and rise from obscurity to presidential front-runner overnight just by fomenting a little hatred towards the border.

Americans by-and-far are ignorant. Most believe their taxes will decrease and they'll have prosperity if immigrants were all expelled from the country.

Instead of addressing the real cause of reduced prosperity among the working class (which is income disparity) republicans point to illegal immigrants and get the uneducated masses all worked up.

Any Texas politician who would dare say different in this atmosphere would be committing political suicide. While Straus certainly knows that stopping illegal immigration won't solve a thing, he also knows that there would be a substantial poll penalty if he should go against the tide.

The green light has been flashed to not only Central America but to all parts of the world. If you come, you can stay--no matter what the law. Billions of people worldwide live in undesirable conditions. If they cross into Texas then we ship some along to California.

DPS relies solely on intelligence generated from two sources for their hype. The Feds and Mexican tabloids. And they don't have to reveal either one. If you can get your hands on one of their bulletins you'll see what I'm talking about. All of this "violence" on the border is actually re-stated crime occurring deep in the interior of Mexico. The stars of these are none other than the cartel and it reads like a soap opera in real life with the impression that it is occurring right across the street from the US. I have to give them credit. They've excelled at scaring money out of taxpayers.

Southern, daily and good for you

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